The paranimologist sits as still as possible, I inwardly narrate in David Attenborough’s voice,so as not to alarm any approaching gingersnappuses. She will wait for as long as it takes, unless the residents of 27 come outside and ask her to leave.
I hear a loud, scratchy whisper from across the street. “Papaya!”
Without turning to look, I wave Morgan off.Shhh! Not now!
Still no sign of the notoriously elusive paranimal, Attenborough continues.There’s only a flowerpot containing a shriveled brown plant, muddy flip-flops, and a rolled-up newspaper on the porch.
“Papaya!”
Morgan runs across the road at a crouch, joining me.
I desperately need a stress ball to squeeze. “You’re supposed to be looking out! Why d’you keep cawing ‘papaya’ at me?”
“It’s your code name.”
“I don’t have a code name!” I am going to attack him. “And papayas better not mean something dodgy to Mariah Abernathy.”
He cranks his head back to study the sky, a paragon of innocence. “So, have you found anything?”
“Hard to find anything when you don’t give me a second’s peace.” I unscrew the cap of my water bottle and take a long drink. Morgan eyes my mouth thirstily. “Why were you calling for me?”
“I was testing out your code name to see if you’d respond to it.”
I drag my nails over my face. “A curse on my ancestors.”
“Cat!” Morgan springs to his full height, pointing to a small square garden. “It’s a cat!”
A big puffy gray one with a squashed face. “Not a paranimal.” I shake my head. “And the one I saw was ginger, remember? A lot like Snapdragon, but lighter in color.”
“Oh, right.” He prods absently at the newspaper. Then frowns. Repositions it to different angles. “Is this written in another language?”
I lean closer to him. At first blush, the print facing up definitely looks like ordinary English words in an ordinary newspaper. But when I try toreadthe words, none of them make individual sense. Headline:Tudey’s Niws iv Samothung Samothung. My index finger traces the accompanying logo of a faintorange-and-black swirl. There are black-and-white photographs of rodents, with nonsensical captions. Advertisements that saySail! Buoy samothung ge tew samothungus.
“Looks like gibberish.”
“I don’t recognize anything about this newspaper. And believe me, I know my local competition.” He picks it up, testing the weight in his hand. “Do you—” We both yelp as a blur of orange materializes between us, and a claw sinks into my shoulder.
The newspaper is running away.
The newspaper has turnedinto a gingersnappus, and is running away.
“Oh my god!” Morgan yells at me.
“Oh my god!” I yell at him.
“What do you people want?” the owner of 27 Bear Run yells through their screen door. “Get off my porch.”
We flee.
“Another ginger cat that has a secret gingersnappus form, that transforms into an object and then back into a gingersnappus again at will!” I cry. “There is a definite pattern: first Snapdragon, and now this one. We can safely deduce that the Black Bear Witch likes to enchant ginger cats.”
Morgan grasps my arm. “Imagine a gingersnappus that turns into a diamond necklace. Or a hat. Or a dandelion. But what if someone accidentally stepped on it? Maybe they’re not even really alive when they’re in object form, or they’re in some kind of stasis. Hey, I know! Let’s break into the animal shelter! We’ll poke any ginger cats to see if they shape-shift.”
“Breaking into an animal shelter should maybe not be planA,” I interrupt, patting his back to calm him down. “Let’s use our heads here. Pause to document what we know so far.”
I pull him off the sidewalk and into the Holly Jolly Trolley, which has been sitting beside the post office for so long that its wheels have sunk down into the dirt. Moonvillians use the trolley as if it’s a town square gazebo, and it’s always got crumbs from dog biscuits on the floor.
I leaf through my notepad and bite the cap off my pen. He unlatches his briefcase. Whips out a sheet of paper.Gingersnappuses, he jots down, crossing outGingersnappi as plural terminology?I trace three capital letters stamped into the leather of his briefcase. “LPI.What’s that stand for?”
